The present invention relates generally to yarns, fabrics and protective garments using such yarns and, more particularly, to an improved yarn which may be used to form an improved, more confortable, more flexible protective garment.
In our prior applications we describe certain technological advantages of an extended chain polyethylene fiber when used in a yarn for a protective garment as compared to other fibers. In our prior applications we explained the use of a yarn having a core and a covering with the core including the combination of at least one strand of extended chain polyethylene fiber and one strand of wire, with the wire and fiber strands placed parallel to each other to form the core. The covering for the yarn, as described in our earlier applications, may be of materials such as extended chain polyethylene, nylon or other fibers.
The yarn and protective garment knitted therefrom, as described in our prior applications, exhibit numerous benefits as compared to the prior art yarn and prior art protective garment where the yarn contains the aramid fiber plus wire.
One of the benefits of the yarn as described in our prior applications was a resistance to being cut with a sharp instrument such as a knife. At the time of our prior invention, we believed that the combination of extended chain polyethylene and wire in the core of the yarn exhibited greater resistance than the combination of aramid plus wire in the core of the yarn and further believed that the improved cut-resistance or slash-resistance was attributable to the use of the extended chain polyethylene.
We have since discovered that while the use of the combination of the extended chain polyethylene together with a wire as the core for a covered yarn provided numerous benefits when compared to the use of the combination of aramid plus wire as the core for a yarn, that totally new and different approaches have resulted in an improved yarn and protective garment.